Each Year, one-third of the world’s population will be affected by natural disaster.
13 million will become refugees and 20 million will be displaced within their own countries.
Women and children make up 80% of the world’s refugees and displaced people.
The need for quality and accessible reproductive health care in crisis settings is urgent.

Nearly 400,000 women will die each year from pregnancy-related causes. Nurses and Midwives are the primary reproductive health care providers. They provide up to 80% of patient care everyday around the world.

Karen is a former board member of COHI and has volunteered her clinical services in Nicaragua and on a previous trip to Haiti.

COHI has also worked with Midwives in Tibet, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Sudan, Palestine, and Israel, Post- Katrina in Louisiana, and Japan. They focus on safe motherhood, gender based violence, and HIV/AIDS.

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Karen has four goals for her time in Haiti.

1.Review existing protocols for managing emergencies.

2.Run emergency drills for using improved protocol for complications to help reduce chaos during emergency situations.

3. Make improvements based on evidence.

4. Improving outcomes for mothers and babies by providing peer to peer skill building and support through the two local midwives that staff the birth center.

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Karen is traveling to Haiti at the end of this month. The $1000 goal has already been raised. We still need your help to ensure that COHI is able to continue helping women and children.
Every additional dollar raised beyond our goal will go towards getting Karen – or another skilled midwife – to the next disaster or crisis. COHI volunteers give their time freely to ensure that women can have safe births – even in unsafe times.